Delhi, India – December 2017

On 5-6 December, Climate Parliament hosted a global parliamentary roundtable event in New Delhi, India, to discuss how to accelerate the transition to clean energy and electric transport across the developing world. At this high-level dialogue, legislators, experts and business leaders shared actionable ideas to address the challenges of building new smart grids at the village, city, national and regional levels, which are needed if we are to rely heavily on renewable energy in the future. The roundtable took place in Le Méridien Hotel in central Delhi, near Parliament.

This was a preparatory meeting for a new Green Grid Initiative which the Climate Parliament is organising. The Green Grid Initiative will have three parts. First, we are assembling a South-South leadership group of around 20 developing countries at the Ministerial level called the Green Grid Alliance, which we envisage playing a valuable complementary role alongside the larger International Solar Alliance. Second, we are organising a Green Grid Network made up of national legislators from the participating countries. Third, we will convene a Green Grid Leadership Forum made up of business leaders from 20 major companies. These will be companies involved in renewable energy, electric vehicles, IT and financial services, and grid construction. The Green Grid Leadership Forum will provide ideas and advice to the governments and legislators.

The topics covered at this two-day event included:

A discussion of overall themes and objectives for the Green Grid Initiative.
Electric vehicles and smart grids: creating charging capacity, and enabling vehicle owners to sell stored energy when needed.
Village mini-grids for energy access: exploring standard model contracts which could attract bond market investors by bundling large numbers of renewable energy mini-grids together.
Accelerating key cross-border interconnections for trading renewable energy.
Innovative financial instruments such as Green Grid Bonds.
Parliamentary support for the International Solar Alliance.